With the advent of the compact disc format, storage which far exceeds the capacity of cassette tape or the floppy disc was made available to a wide audience. In the record industry, the introduction of the compact disc revolutionized the industry and heralded a new format. The vinyl long-playing record fell into obsolescence and CDs as they are commonly referred to are the existing standard for pre-recorded music.
Given the storage capacity that the CD provides, most software manufacturers are slowly phasing out floppy discs in favor of CDs for the sale of their proprietary software. The CD is inexpensive, extremely durable, and retains an impressive storage capacity. Moreover, CD-ROM drives have become standard equipment in the configuration of most personal computers. Therefore, there has been a tremendous amount of interest in identifying new uses or new products for CD format. In addition, given the facility for utilizing recordable CD-ROM and the dramatic decline in price the CD format appears to be inherently the universal medium.
Hence, a rotary recording medium like a compact disc on which a digitally encoded information signal including an audio and/or a video signal, may be used in various applications. The disc may be used in an application where it is required to arbitrarily select an audio selection featuring audio content from among a plurality of audio selections, as in the case of CD records capturing the musical performances of popular recording artists. As an alternative, the user may elect to view a video program, or utilize an application provided by a software purveyor for an activity such as word processing or video game playing. Finally, with the rise of the Web or Internet, many users utilize a browsing utility to access information via the Net.
Unfortunately the CD's capacity is not unlimited. When used for a single undertaking like audio storage or video gaming, the disc which is used as a storage media, can accommodate most applications. For example, a CD may be used for simulating a game or for playing a sport, by using the CD's inherent capacity for creating a response based on a series of conditions, a more complete experience is obtained by the user. The interplay between play and machine may be termed interactive. Other examples that allow the user to interact with his or her machine and others are Internet related activities like online commerce or communication and online a game-playing. Game playing which utilizes information programs, corresponding to a plurality of processes or results from which a selection may be made from user response, are independently recorded on a disc along with corresponding picture information. The user then selects and reproduces a response from the disc by carrying out a random access search. Obviously the search and response must be substantially instantaneous. Yet another wrinkle to video gaming arises when games are played over the Internet with a mix of live and software generated characters.
With the communications revolution starting to reach most households and the desire for interactivity firmly rooted, such activities as surfing the Internet and visiting Web pages, home pages, or communicating over the Net, companies have identified startling strategic opportunities to promote their products. The major problem is to deliver the consumer to the Web site or home page. There are software programs that allow the consumer to browse through the net and if he so chooses stop at a Web-site. An even better method is to create a hot-link to the site, that is a software actuated procedure that automatically directs the consumer to the Web-site.
Given the fact that record companies produce millions of sound recordings in a CD format, there is a present desire to achieve multiple usages for the format. The prior art contains a multiplicity of enhanced CDs. The common feature, stands without exception that there is a provision for allowing the user to either listen or view and listen one or more pieces of audio or audio/video programming. In the alternative, there are CDs derived specifically for providing pre-programmed applications and/or utilities.
There is a tremendous amount of information relating to the compact disc and to a lesser extent digital video discs (hereinafter DVD and also known as digital versatile disc). The recording standards are set out and are uniformly adhered to in the industry. In fact, the compact disc is perhaps the most studied and regulated format within the recording industry. From the hub size, refractive index, ordering and physical characteristics of tracks, to the encoding and ordering of information or gaps the compact disc comports with an international standard commonly referred to as Red Book Standard. The video component of a compact disc recorded as a CD-ROM meets with a similar plurality of standards within the Yellow Book Standard.
The prior art as one might expect is rife with examples of enhanced compact discs. As an overall paradigm, there are embodiments that include methods and products for creating the disc and certain applications for creating a complex disc.
U.S. Patent 4,839,746 issued to Kanamura discloses a method for creating an enhanced CD that has both audio and audio/video sectors. The methodology limits the result to a bipartite product (audio and audio/video) without any further application functionality.